If the Pendragon picture is going to be truely faithful then The Martians have to be slightly backward when it comes to their technolagy at the same time as being very advanced. In the book they haven't even invented the wheel as there is no evidence of it in any of their machinary. Also they only learn how to fly whilst on Earth. They are shot to Earth in cylanders which crash into the ground and don't arrive in flying saucers or the like. They don't even wear space suits, and expose themselves to unfriendly alien bacteria. This is all because Wells can only invisage so much being a man of his time and this is one of the great things about the book. I hope that Hines is keeping all this in mind. <br />In some areas we have already surpassed the martian technolagy, with our modern airplanes. <br />This is why the Parramount picture is only War of the Worlds in name.<br />The Heatray is a box with a parabold ossalating mirror, held by one of the tenticals. The Martians are clearly visable in the hoods of the fighting machines, driving them, and unprotected from the elements and artillary. Lets face it thats a little daft on their part. But its what I want to see. A totaly faithful rendition of the Martian Technolagy. even their mighty gun which fires the cylanders to suburbs of London breaks and they stop coming. Even after all their scrutiny before the invasion they still lose three of their kind two cannon and the Thunderchild and have to start using the black smoke from a safe distance.<br />So come on Pendragon, make sure your Martians are a little backward, it's part of the charm. Does anybody agree?

I do agree, in some parts although I'm almost certain that we as a human race did not start flying ourselves until 1919 or around that time with the <br />Montgomfery Brothers (Please excuse my spelling). It is a valid point regarding the martians not arriving in flying saucers. But learn to fly on earth this could be purely to do with inertia. IE in space there is no gravity thus the momentum of a cannon firing the Cylinders of the planet would evade such hypothosis of flying saucers, however this doesnt explain how they could be so accurate as to fire a missle without any control if that makes any sense. <br /><br />I think that they have the flying machines on their own planet as they have gravity like on our own planet, (Although 3 times stronger over here) so it is completly satisfactory to say that they brought it with them as part of a strategic plan. They certainly didnt learn how to fly from us at this point in time. <br /><br />I'm not trying to rip your thoughts as I do agree with some of them. <br /><br />Ps Welcome to the forum btw<br /><br />Anyone remember this at the cinema BUTTERKIST BUTTERKIST RA RA RA :bunda:

doubtful points really. the absence of the wheel doesnt mean its never been employed. theres not really an application for it in their technology. Their flying machines are almost certainly not invented on Earth. They have issues with the increased gravity from the moment they arrive so doubtless the flying machine would need modification. Space suits are very evidently not necessary for them since they do not realise the dangers of the bacteria, possibly coming from an environment without them. It is not plainly clear that our aeroplanes are in advance of the martian aircraft and its impossilbe to know because Wells could not possibly have such examples to compare. The design of their fighting machines is probably adapted from existing martian technology. As the pc game asserts, the martians are very unlikely to have waged war on anyone for a very long time and don't just have fighting machines lying around on Mars before the preparations to invade.<br />There is no confirmation whatsoever that the gun that launches the cylinders broke either, just a guess late on in the book. You also give the examples of destruction of fighting machines at weybridge and in battle with the Thunder Child. You have to remember that the Martians were victorious in both engagements and as an invading force were prepared for losses and as you say in the black smoke they had a perfect tool to adapt and defeat the human defences so by your own argument their technology was more than advanced enough.

I do agree, in some parts although I'm almost certain that we as a human race did not start flying ourselves until 1919 or around that time with the Montgomfery Brothers (Please excuse my spelling). It is a valid point regarding the martians not arriving in flying saucers. But learn to fly on earth this could be purely to do with inertia. IE in space there is no gravity thus the momentum of a cannon firing the Cylinders of the planet would evade such hypothosis of flying saucers, however this doesnt explain how they could be so accurate as to fire a missle without any control if that makes any sense. I think that they have the flying machines on their own planet as they have gravity like on our own planet, (Although 3 times stronger over here) so it is completly satisfactory to say that they brought it with them as part of a strategic plan. They certainly didnt learn how to fly from us at this point in time. I'm not trying to rip your thoughts as I do agree with some of them. Ps Welcome to the forum btw. Anyone remember this at the cinema BUTTERKIST BUTTERKIST RA RA RA

Just to correct myself, the first physical flight was early december of 1903 by the Wright Brothers. Were the hell did I get Montgomfery Bro from :unsure: . Oh well. Latero

Happy Valentines Day!<br /><br />I've recently recieved my March issue of SFX and there was no trace of Pendragon's movie anywhere in it. There was a feature on Paramounts efforts and I did notice a sneaky letter to the Editor from our administrator Lee for people to look at the website! Go on son.<br />I'm not saying this is a bad thing because I quite like the idea of this movie sort of sneeking up on people but I guess I was a little surprised. Personally I think it is going to be a cult classic and I tip my hat to Mr Hines et al.<br /><br />I got a lovely card from my Mrs this morning. Did anybody else?<br />Oh am i supposed to mention the original topic? Backward aliens? I'll have to get back to you on that.<br /><br />Mr Burton :alien5:

Yeah,got a nice card of my wifey.Incidentally,over the weekend she threatend that the day was shortly coming when she was going to hit me over the head with a copy of WOTW and has now taken Paramounts side as regards the up and coming films just to peck my head.NASTY OR WHAT?????

Aha...well you see what happened didn't make it to the final pressing of the book.Mr Wells left that chapter out.....that chapter was called 'After the curate was dragged away by the Martians and awoke with a large cut on his head to his dismay'.What happened was this............The Curate was rudely awakenend by a Martian slapping his face.As the Curate came round he suddenly realised his predicement.The Martians screamed at the Curate ULLA,ULLA,ULLA.Like a bolt from the blue,the Curate had a brilliant idea.He jumped up to his feet and painstakingley explained to the Martians that he had no idea what they were saying to him and if it would be at all possible if he could just pop down the road to get his 'Martian to English' collins mini translation pocket book.The Martians having enough food already in their newly made pit agreed to let the Curate go,on the promise that he would return.(not mentioned in the original book but the Martians were quite trusting,as in the case of Melvin Martian who,when asked by a small one cell germ for a lift into london on the promise that the germ would be no bother,readily agreed)So,there you have it.....that my friends is how i managed to 'do one' from the Martians.I must also add that at the time i was tempted to return to them just so i could 'grass' that writer up for hitting me over the 'Hiya nappa' with a clever or axe but changed my mind at the last minute.If i had returned the book would have come to an end at that point.

Anyway, back to the concept of 'backwards intellect'.<br /><br />I totally agree with the comments made about Wells being 'a man of his time', and - regarding the Martian flying machine - having 'nothing to compare it with.'<br /><br />Wells was a writer, a storyteller, and a fine one at that. He wasn't a visionary or a groundbreaking scientist, nor did he claim to be.<br /><br />A similar example is that in practically all science fiction stories or novels set in the future & published before the Seventies, whenever a character wants to work out a complex calculation, they either use a 'mechanical/artificial brain' (a computer) the size of a building, or rely on a simple slide-rule. This was because none of the authors could have predicted the advent of the pocket calculator.<br /><br /><br />

Thanks for replying. I wasn't saying that they, the Martians had learnt to fly from us. Just that they seemed to learn to fly on Earth. But as advanced as they are meant to be surely they could have had all the physics of Earth Gravity flight worked out in advance. The Martians are basically what5 Wells and other men of his time thought we would evolve into after millions of years more evolution. Just imagine what our technolagy will be like in millions of years from now.

Martian Myster wrote:

I do agree, in some parts although I'm almost certain that we as a human race did not start flying ourselves until 1919 or around that time with the Montgomfery Brothers (Please excuse my spelling). It is a valid point regarding the martians not arriving in flying saucers. But learn to fly on earth this could be purely to do with inertia. IE in space there is no gravity thus the momentum of a cannon firing the Cylinders of the planet would evade such hypothosis of flying saucers, however this doesnt explain how they could be so accurate as to fire a missle without any control if that makes any sense. I think that they have the flying machines on their own planet as they have gravity like on our own planet, (Although 3 times stronger over here) so it is completly satisfactory to say that they brought it with them as part of a strategic plan. They certainly didnt learn how to fly from us at this point in time. <br /><br />I'm not trying to rip your thoughts as I do agree with some of them. <br /><br />Ps Welcome to the forum btw. Anyone remember this at the cinema BUTTERKIST BUTTERKIST RA RA RA

Fair does on all the points raised against what I said. About broken guns and all that. As for the wheel issue, I think Wells was trying to imply that this invention is unique to man but couldn't actually say so because we have no Martian perspective in the book. There is no evedence of the wheel even in the joints of the machinery. I toyed with the idea, as you do, that the Martians had indeed invented the wheel but had then challenged themselves to work beyond it.<br />The joints of the tripod legs don't even have ball sockets but a series of sliding parts.

Hi, been looking for this passage from the good book,<br /><br />And of their appliances, perhaps nothing is more wonderful to a man than the curious fact that what is the dominant feature of almost all human devices in mechanism is absentâ€”the wheel is absent; among all the things they brought to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their use of wheels. One would have at least expected it in locomotion. And in this connection it is curious to remark that even on this earth Nature has never hit upon the wheel, or has preferred other expedients to its development. <span style='color:red'>And not only did the Martians either not know of (which is incredible), or abstain from, the wheel,</span> but in their apparatus singularly little use is made of the fixed pivot or relatively fixed pivot, with circular motions thereabout confined to one plane. Almost all the joints of the machinery present a complicated system of sliding parts moving over small but beautifully curved friction bearings.<br /><br />As has been said in this thread the Martians have just moved on to other ways, we can't even conceive of.<br /><br />I think later on in the book, Wells suggests that man has begun to adopt their technology.

Hi, been looking for this passage from the good book, And of their appliances, perhaps nothing is more wonderful to a man than the curious fact that what is the dominant feature of almost all human devices in mechanism is absentâ€”the wheel is absent; among all the things they brought to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their use of wheels. One would have at least expected it in locomotion. And in this connection it is curious to remark that even on this earth Nature has never hit upon the wheel, or has preferred other expedients to its development. And not only did the Martians either not know of (which is incredible), or abstain from, the wheel, but in their apparatus singularly little use is made of the fixed pivot or relatively fixed pivot, with circular motions thereabout confined to one plane. Almost all the joints of the machinery present a complicated system of sliding parts moving over small but beautifully curved friction bearings. As has been said in this thread the Martians have just moved on to other ways, we can't even conceive of.I think later on in the book, Wells suggests that man has begun to adopt their technology.

Note the bit about curved friction bearings, correct me if i'm wrong but bearing are generally ball shaped or round like the wheel. So I thinks this ends the discussion on that. Wow btw for finding that part of the book..

i think the flying machine is adapted for use on earth rather than invented on earth because i doubt the machine wasdesigned from absolute scratch in the short period of time between their arrival and its first appearence, far more likely there were technical issues that could only be resolved once on Earth.<br /><br />pure speculation though

Balls and wheels are very different things. Balls exist in nature, but Wheels do not. <br />It's great though init? You go down stairs and the Wife goes, "What you been up to honey?" and you go - "Just debating whether or not the Martians had invented the wheel or not."<br /><br />

i think the flying machine is adapted for use on earth rather than invented on earth because i doubt the machine wasdesigned from absolute scratch in the short period of time between their arrival and its first appearence, far more likely there were technical issues that could only be resolved once on Earth. pure speculation though

As with alot of things at time of war,problems and teething troubles over new machinery and conditions is sometimes 'ironed out' in the field like you say Leper...

That's because War of the Worlds is a very deep novel and Wells attention to detail is one of the aspects that make it so great. This book was wtitten to make people really think about civilization, the human race and how significant we really are in the scheme of the Universe.

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